FN Dish

State Fair Foods: You'll Never Guess What You Can Get on a Stick

When you think of state fair food, you probably think of things that are deep-fried, sugar-dusted, perched on a stick or served in a cone: You've got your corn dogs, funnel cakes, ice cream — with which you can fortify yourself as you gaze upon your wall of blue-ribbon pies and, especially in the Midwest, your life-size cows carved out of butter.

But, of course, those fairground staples are only the beginning. State fairs are also famous for debuting foods that are new and different — innovative, imaginative, exotic and often deliberately excessive. Who can forget the
deep-fried stick of butter on a stick that made its debut at the Iowa State Fair a few years back?

The
Ohio State Fair (July 23-August 3) is also offering interesting
new items for adventurous eaters — and making them easier to locate by launching a new Food Finder mobile app. Creative options include a Sloppy Donut ("a donut sandwich stacked high with BBQ pork, deep-fried pickle chips, bacon and cheese"), a Funnel Cake Sundae (bowl or cup — it's your choice), both a Chicken Dog and a Banana Dog (the latter is battered, deep-fried and served with peanut butter and chocolate sauce — paging Elvis Presley), Kettle Corn Dippin' Dots, and Chocolate-Covered Bacon, Bacon Popcorn and a 1/4 pound Bacon on a Stick.

You can also find new culinary musings on a bacon theme at this year's
Wisconsin State Fair (July 31-August 10). Fairgoers can pig out on Deep-Fried Maple Bacon Cookie Dough (cinnamon and oat cookie dough "tossed with Bacon" then "deep fried in a Pastry Wrapper and topped with a Maple Glaze and dusted with Powdered Sugar and sprinkled with more Bacon!"), Bacon-Wrapped Cherrywood Smoked Pork Belly ("glazed with Maple BBQ Sauce … deep fried and served on a stick"), and Peanut Butter Bacon Bison Burger ("1/3 pound Bison Patty topped with pit smoked bacon and creamy peanut butter, served on Texas Toast"), not to mention Bacon Caramel Corn and Maple Bacon Funnel Cake.

Meanwhile, the
Minnesota State Fair (Aug. 21-Sept. 1) will offer fun-loving, food-minded fairgoers a few
fine new tweaks on Midwestern classics. You can nibble on Pizza Tots (forget "taters" — these handmade tots "combine sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, seasonings and hash browns" and are "dusted with Parmesan cheese and served with a side of pizza sauce"), Pretzel Curds ("real Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds coated in a batter made from crushed pretzels, bread crumbs and American Pilsner beer; deep-fried and served with a zesty dipping sauce") and Schnitzel Strips ("Pork tenderloin coated with a seasoned breading, then fried, cut into strips and served with a lemon, garlic and mayonnaise dipping sauce").

You can also enjoy a bevy of on-a-stick options, including Deep-Fried Breakfast On-a-Stick ("American and Swiss cheeses, a sausage patty, one egg and Canadian bacon all sandwiched between two pancakes, then dipped in a light, sweet batter and deep-fried on-a-stick") and, in keeping with current eating trends, Gluten-Free Beer-Battered Brat ("A locally-made gluten- and nitrate-free brat, dipped in a homemade beer batter and deep-fried on-a-stick").

One of the highlights of my childhood was going with my parents to street fairs and carnivals. My dad made it a point that we try everything from the gyros to Polish sausages to caramel apples. By the time we rolled home, we were all moaning and groaning from stomach aches